Biometeorology, Climate, Urbanism and Mobility
An interdisciplinary research group advancing human-centred, climate-resilient urban planning through human biometeorological and mobility science, using evidence-based design.
Four Interconnected Pillars
BCUM is structured around four interconnected pillars: Biometeorology, Climate, Urbanism and Mobility. Each contributes a distinct perspective to the Research Line, while their integration provides a framework for understanding how environmental conditions, people, urban spaces and movement interact.
Biometeorology
Examines the interactions between atmospheric conditions and the human body through a human-centred approach. Within BCUM, particular attention is given to thermal exposure and thermal stress, while considering more broadly how environmental conditions can affect human health and well-being, perception, behaviour and activity patterns.
Urbanism
Examines how the built environment shapes environmental conditions and the ways in which people experience and use urban spaces and their sub-spaces. BCUM considers the influence of urban form, design, materials, vegetation and spatial organisation, while exploring how planning and design can respond to climatic conditions and contribute to climate-responsive, comfortable and liveable urban environments.
Climate
Provides the environmental context within which human exposure and experience occur. BCUM examines climatic conditions across spatial and temporal scales, considering baseline conditions, variability and extremes, as well as how these patterns are changing over time. This provides the basis for understanding both present-day conditions and the implications of future climate change.
Mobility
Examines movement as a fundamental dimension of how people experience and interact with their environments. BCUM considers stationary and non-stationary conditions, including peripatetic approaches, and transitions between outdoor, semi-outdoor and indoor environments, as well as spaces of stationary activity and passage. Both direct and cumulative exposure are considered across different patterns and temporal scales, from hourly and daily variations to seasonal and annual patterns, including the frequency, duration and sequence of exposure. This perspective also examines how climatic and environmental conditions interact with accessibility, mobility choices, transport systems and infrastructure, influencing how, when and where people move.
An Integrated Perspective
The four pillars of BCUM can be examined individually, but their full value emerges through their interaction. Environmental conditions are experienced by people, modified by the spaces and sub-spaces in which they occur, and encountered differently as people remain within or move between them. These relationships are neither spatially nor temporally fixed: they evolve with changing climatic conditions, patterns of activity and movement, and the characteristics of the built environment.
By bringing Biometeorology, Climate, Urbanism and Mobility together, BCUM connects the human, environmental, spatial and dynamic dimensions of urban experience. This integrated perspective supports research that moves between observation, measurement, modelling and human perception, while considering both immediate conditions and cumulative experiences across different spatial and temporal scales.
The objective is not only to understand these interactions, but to translate that understanding into knowledge that can support planning, design, mobility, adaptation and informed, climate-resilient decision-making, from immediate responses to longer-term strategies for present and future climatic challenges.